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Medieval Music Database

Doulz amis, oy mon compleint
ballade by Guillaume de Machaut

Sources

New York: Wildenstein Collection, fol. 299 (2/1);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 843 (text); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (MachA), fol. 456v (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1585 (MachB), fol. 297 (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1586 (MachC), fol. 160 (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 9221 (MachE), fol. 154 (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 22546 (MachG), fol. 135v (2/1);
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Library, French MS 15, number 155 (text).

Facsimiles

APEL, Willi. The Notation of Polyphonic Music 900-1600, Cambridge/Massachusetts: The Medieval Academy of America, 1942, p. 357 (Pn1584).

Editions

1. Guillaume de Machaut: Musikalische Werke. Erster Band: Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais, edited by Friedrich Ludwig, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1926, p. 5.
2. The Works of Guillaume de Machaut, Second Part, edited by Leo Schrade, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1956. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century III, p. 77.
3. One Hundred Ballades, Rondeaux and Virelais from the Late Middle Ages, edited by Nigel Wilkins, Cambridge, England: 1969, no. 5.
4. Anthology of Medieval Music, edited by Richard H. Hoppin, New York: W. W. Norton, 1978, no. 62 (Pn1584).
5. PHILLIPS, Elizabeth V. and John-Paul Christopher JACKSON. Performing Medieval and Renaissance Music: an Introductory Guide, Schirmer Books:New York, 1986, p. 119 [R Hoppin].

Text Editions

Guillaume de Machaut: poésies lyriques, 2 vols., edited by V. Chichmaref, Paris: 1909, p. 540.

Literature

1. APEL, Willi. The Notation of Polyphonic Music 900-1600, Cambridge/Massachusetts: The Medieval Academy of America, 1942, pp. 355-356.
2. MACHABEY, Armand. Guillaume de Machault, 130?-1377: La vie et l'oeuvre musicale, 2 vols, Paris: Richard-Masse-Editeur, 1955. Bibliothèque d'études musicales, pp. 22-23.
3. GÜNTHER, Ursula. Der musikalische Stilwandel der französischen Liedkunst in der zweiten Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts, dargestelt an Virelais, Balladen und Rondeax von Machaut., Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hamburg: 1957, Chapter 4.1.
4. SALOP, Arnold. 'The secular polyphony of Guillaume de Machaut', [chapter 2 of his] Studies on the History of Musical Style, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1971, pp. 53-54.
5. DÖMLING, Wolfgang. 'Aspekte der Sprachvertonung in den Balladen Guillaume de Machauts', Die Musikforschung, XXV/3 (1972), p. 302.
6. SWARTZ, Anne. 'A new chronology of the ballades of Machaut', Acta Musicologica, XLVI (1974): 192-207.
7. ARLT, Wulf. 'Aspekte der Chronologie und des Stilwandels im französischen Lied des 14. Jahrhunderts', Forum Musicologicum (Aktuelle Fragen der musikbezogenen Mittelalterforschung), vol. III, Basel: Amadeus Verlag, 1975, pp. 249-252.
8. WILKINS, Nigel. 'Ballade (i)', The New Grove, II (1980): 76-78.
9. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Contribution de la musicologie à la biographie et à la chronologie de Guillaume de Machaut', Guillaume de Machaut, poète et compositeur. Colloque - Table Ronde, 1978, pp. 95-116.
10. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Sinnbezüge zwischen Text und Musik in Ars nova und Ars subtilior', Musik und Text in der Mehrstimmigkeit des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, edited by U. Günther and L. Finscher, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1984, pp. 229-268.

Recordings

Guillaume de Machaut: le vray remède d'amour -- ballades, rondeaux, virelais, motets, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, directed by Dominique Vellard (1988): Harmonic Records H/CD 8825.

Text

Doulz amis, oy mon compleint:
A toy se pleint
Et compleint
Par deffaut de tes secours.
Mes cuers qu'amours si contreint
Que tiens remeint
Dont mal meint
Ay, quant tu ne me secours
En mes langours.
Car d'aillours
N'est riens qui confort m'amaint.
S'en croist mes plours
Tous les jours.
Quant tes cuers en moy ne maint.

Amis, t'amour si m'ataint
Que me vis taint
Et destaint
Souvent de pluseurs coulours
Et mon dolent cuer estraint;
Si le destraint
Qu'il estaint.
Quant en toy n'a son recours.
S'a jours trop cours.
Se n'acours
Pour li garir, car il creint
Mort qui d'amours
Vient le cours.
Quant tes cuers en moy ne maint.

Mon cuer t'amour si ensaint
Qu'il ne se faint
Qu'il ne t'aint
Pour tes parfaites doucours;
Et ta biaute qui tout vaint
Dedens li paint
Et empraint
Aveuc tes hautes valours.
S'en sont gringnours
Mes dolours
Et plus dolereus mi plaint
Et en decours
Mes vigours.
Quant tes cuers en moy ne maint.

Translation

Sweet friend, hear my complaint:
To you laments
And complains.
For want of your aid.
My heart which love so constrains
That it remains yours;
From which I have great trouble
Since you do not help me
In my distress.
For there is nothing else
Which brings me comfort.
So my tears increase
Every day.
Since your heart does not dwell in me.

Friend, your love so wounds me
That it makes my face flush
And grow pale.
Often changing colour
And wrings my grieving heart;
It is so oppressed
That it faints.
When it has no help in you.
So its days are too short.
If you do not run
To cure it, for it fears
Death, which from love
Comes swiftly.
Since your heart does not dwell in me.

My heart is so full of your love
That it does not conceal
That it loves you
For your perfect delights;
And your all-conquering beauty
Spurs it within
And impresses it
With your great merits.
So my pains
Are greater
And my laments more doleful.
And my strength
Wanes.
Since your heart does not dwell in me.
Text revision and translation © Jennifer Garnham

Content Approved by: MMDB Director
Last updated: Wednesday, 19 March 2003

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